Sandy Hook Firefighters Host Open House

By Shannon Hicks

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue hosted an open house on Sunday, October 2, that invited the community to meet members of the company, tour its main station on Riverside Road, check out its apparatus, and even try on some of the gear used for various calls. In addition, fire safety and prevention materials were given out and plenty of refreshments were shared, all free of charge.

Marylou Vayan and her granddaughter Sierra were the first to arrive at the open house, and they were actually at the firehouse for the second time that morning.

“She was so excited, and we had the time wrong in our heads, so we were actually here at 10 while they were still setting up,” Ms Vayan said. “So we ran to Dunkin’ Donuts to get some coffee and warm up, and then came back.”

The family then spent well over an hour exploring the firehouse and meeting many of the company’s members. Once Sierra had her fill of climbing into some of the trucks that had been pulled from the bays out into the parking area in front of the firehouse, she went inside to the Fire Prevention table. Sarah Capozziello, Brianna Piccirillo, and Stephanie Stoyak — whose fathers are members of the fire and rescue company — were seated behind a pair of folding tables, giving out coloring books, rulers, plastic fire hats, pencils, adhesive bandage holders, trick or treat bags, and other materials imprinted with fire safety information.

Like others who stopped in to the open house, Sierra also went behind the scenes on Sunday, looking into the building’s meeting rooms and even looking at the collections of photos and trophies that line the back hallways and display cases.

Smokey the Bear made frequent appearances during the event, which began at 11 and ran until midafternoon.

The event also invited all visitors to check out or even try on some of the firefighters’ gear, see the quad and trailer used for rescues in the woods and other difficult to maneuver locations, watch demonstrations of proper fire extinguisher use, and also watch firefighters using spreaders to pry open a car door. The firefighters had planned to also set the vehicle on fire and then extinguish it as part of their continued demonstrations on Sunday, but a call for help within their district changed those plans.

Newtown Ambulance participated in the event, sending once of its rigs and a crew to the station.

Newtown Police Officer Steven Santucci was also at the event, with a patrol car that he allowed visitors of all ages to check out and plenty of safety information.

Members of the fire company’s ladies auxiliary had a table inside the bays filled with refreshments, while outdoors George Lockwood, Sr, manned the grill, cooking up cheeseburgers and hot dogs for everyone’s enjoyment.

Visit NewtownBee.com and look for this story under the Features tab. A slideshow accompanying the online story has a number of additional photos from Sunday’s open house.